Patriots Planet - New England Patriots Forums and Message Boards - Politics and Religion Forumhttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/
Political and religious based discussions. Only civil discourse is permitted here!enTue, 20 Nov 2018 00:22:12 GMTvBulletin60http://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/images/misc/rss.jpgPatriots Planet - New England Patriots Forums and Message Boards - Politics and Religion Forumhttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/
Poor Little Snowflakeshttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75346&goto=newpost
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 22:02:11 GMTI searched a good bit, but could not find a thread appropriate for the following article. So here's a new thread to serve as a repository for how our culture is capitulating to all the poor little snowflakes.

-A memo sent out to Leeds Trinity staff said capitals could 'scare them into failure'
-It also included tips on how they should address students from now on
-This includes writing in a friendly tone and avoiding overbearing language

University bosses have banned lecturers from using capital letters when assigning work to their students out of fear it might upset them.

The memo sent out to staff at Leed's Trinity journalism department suggested that using uppercase letters may 'scare them into failure', reports the Express.

It also included some tips on how they should address their students from now on, such as writing in a friendly tone, steering clear of overbearing language and negative instructions.

Critics have slammed the idea because it suggests that the 'snowflake' generation are being overindulged throughout their education...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/%E...id=mailsignout
]]>Politics and Religion ForumRoadNastyhttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75343http://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75336&goto=newpost
Thu, 15 Nov 2018 19:17:31 GMThttps://www.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-fails-first-ever-audit-official-says-182503527--business.htmlhttps://www.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-...-business.html
]]>Politics and Religion ForumBostonTimhttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75336So the homeless guy who gave his last $20...http://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75335&goto=newpost
Thu, 15 Nov 2018 13:54:59 GMT...to a gal who ran out of gas, and the heartwarming story of the GoFundMe that made hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then the allegations that......to a gal who ran out of gas, and the heartwarming story of the GoFundMe that made hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then the allegations that claimed she and her hubby scammed the homeless guy out of much of the money all turned out to be a scam that all three were in on...

A New Jersey couple accused of scamming a homeless good Samaritan out of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of an online fundraiser that went viral a year ago had initially conspired with him to concoct a "fictitious story," prosecutors allege.

A complaint obtained by NBC Philadelphia says couple Mark D'Amico and Kate McClure made up a GoFundMe campaign in honor of Johnny Bobbitt Jr. so that all three could raise money by deceiving generous donors. They kept up the ruse by preventing donors from acquiring information that would affect their judgment about the campaign and "by failing to correct their story," the complaint added.

Nothing like a story that restores your faith in humanity, then takes it away, then stomps it into oblivion...this is why we can't have nice things.
]]>Politics and Religion ForumIU_Knightmarehttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75335Exclusive Interview with Author of Leaked Facebook Memohttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75332&goto=newpost
Tue, 13 Nov 2018 23:55:39 GMTThis is outstanding.
Keith Lockitch
Keith Lockitch, Ph.D. in physics, is a senior fellow and vice president of content at the Ayn Rand...This is outstanding.

Keith Lockitch

Keith Lockitch, Ph.D. in physics, is a senior fellow and vice president of content at the Ayn Rand Institute. He focuses primarily on the intersection of science with current events and policy issues. He is a senior editor of New Ideal.

Quote:

Brian Amerige is the former Facebook engineer whose internal memo “We Have a Problem with Political Diversity” was leaked in August to the press. “The post went up quietly on Facebook’s internal message board last week,” reported the New York Times at that time, and “it quickly took off inside the social network.” The memo (see full text below), and public reactions to it, became part of a wider debate about the intellectual climate in Silicon Valley.

In October, Amerige announced his decision to leave the company over concerns about its content policy and its apparent acceptance of the inevitability of government regulation. “Our policy strategy is pragmatism — not clear, implementable long-term principles,” Amerige observed in his announcement (see full text below), “and our PR strategy is appeasement — not morally earned pride and self-defense.”

Amerige is also an Objectivist, and in this exclusive interview with Ayn Rand Institute CEO Tal Tsfany, he discusses the events surrounding his leaked memo, the corporate culture at Facebook and the influence of Ayn Rand’s ideas on his life and career.
Here are the full texts of two memos referenced in the video interview with Brian Amerige: “We Have a Problem with Political Diversity” (August 2018) and “I’m Leaving Facebook” (October 2018). The memos are reproduced here without endorsement, simply as context so that viewers can better understand events referred to in the interview.

“We Have a Problem with Political Diversity”
THE PROBLEM

We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views.​ We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology. We throw labels that end in *obe and *ist at each other, attacking each other’s character rather than their ideas.

We do this so consistently that employees are afraid to say anything when they disagree with what’s around them politically.​ HR has told me that this is not a rare concern, and I’ve personally gotten over a hundred messages to that effect. Your colleagues are afraid because they know that they — not their ideas — will be attacked. They know that all the talk of “openness to different perspectives” does not apply to causes of “social justice,” immigration, “diversity”, and “equality.” On these issues, you can either keep quiet or sacrifice your reputation and career.

These are not fears without cause. Because we tear down posters welcoming Trump supporters. We regularly propose removing Thiel from our board because he supported Trump. We’re quick to suggest firing people who turn out to be misunderstood, and even quicker to conclude our colleagues are bigots. We have made “All Lives Matter” a fireable offense. We put Palmer Luckey through a witch hunt because he paid for anti-Hillary ads. We write each other ad-hoc feedback in the PSC tool for having “offensive” ideas. We ask HR to investigate those who dare to criticize Islam’s human rights record for creating a “non inclusive environment.” And they called me a transphobe when I called out our corporate art for being politically radical.

WHY THIS MATTERS

This is not okay. Not just for our internal culture, but for our own viability as a company. While the problem isn’t unique to us, we are entrusted by a great part of the world to be impartial and transparent carriers of people’s stories, ideas, and commentary. Congress doesn’t think we can do this. The President doesn’t think we can do this. And like them or not, we deserve that criticism. We are blind to and dismissive of what people beyond our walls (let alone even within our walls) think about complex issues that matter. I’ve been here for nearly 6.5 years and this has gotten exponentially worse in the last 2.

FB’ers for Political Diversity

I don’t know how to fix this problem on my own. What I do know is that these issues can’t be fixed if we continue to be isolated and silent. So that’s what this group is for: (a) to be a space where you can talk about these issues without fear of the mob, and in the process (b) to talk about how we can fix this.

If you’re interested in helping make Facebook a company that’s more tolerant and active-minded about different political and ideological perspectives, join FB’ers for Political Diversity.

There’s only going to be one core rule in the group, and it’s that if you attack a person’s character, rather than their ideas, you will be banned.

Let’s see where this goes.

I’m Leaving Facebook
I’m sad to say that Friday, October 12th will be my last day at Facebook.

This was a difficult decision to make because I love so much about this company, our mission, and our leaders. But I’ve been thinking about this for almost a year and though a certain leak delayed me a bit, I know it’s time for me to move on.

There’s a lot to say about why, and this post certainly won’t cover it all. Unlike many others who’ve been here for a while, I’m not leaving because “it’s time for something new.” I believe that it takes a long time to do good work, and novelty isn’t my kind of thing: change is good when it’s change for the better. I’ve changed teams once in my 6.5 years at Facebook.

Strategically, we’ve taken a stance on how to balance offensive and hateful speech with free expression. We’ve accepted the inevitability of government regulation. And we’ve refused to defend ourselves in the press. Our policy strategy is pragmatism — not clear, implementable long-term principles — and our PR strategy is appeasement — not morally earned pride and self-defense.

Culturally, it’s difficult to have meaningful conversations about any of this because we’re a political monoculture, and these are political issues. And while we’ve made some progress in FB’ers for Political Diversity (which is approaching 750 members now), and while I’m pleased to say that senior company leadership does take this seriously (as you will hopefully soon see), we have a very long way to go.

To that end, while I remain as in love as ever with our mission and my colleagues’ nearly-always good intentions, I disagree too strongly with where we’re heading on these issues to watch what happens next. These issues hang over my head each morning, and I don’t want to spend all of my time fighting about them.

Our product is also at a crossroads (and has been for years) as sharing in the Facebook app continues to dwindle. The pivot to Stories will hopefully help, but I’m disappointed by how reactive our future appears to be. Ultimately, I’ve spent the bulk of my time at Facebook trying to build a stronger product culture. From tech-leading Paper, to starting and leading the team that built our UI foundation (FIG, now FDS), I wanted Facebook to be a place where people with great product sense, focus, intuition and a little obsessiveness about quality were attracted, belonged, and were rewarded. I think we made progress, but the headwinds have been and continue to be strong, and it shows in our future-looking product strategy and the relative rarity of strong product thinkers at Facebook.

My departure isn’t because I think these issues are intractable. These problems can be solved — just not by me, not anymore, at least. I care too deeply about our role in supporting free expression and intellectual diversity to even whole-heartedly attempt the product stuff anymore, and that’s how I know it’s time to go.

Be Proud

Still, this company gets so much right, and you all have a lot to be proud of. The density of talent at Facebook has always been one of my favorite parts of working here, and there are simply too many incredibly people I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know and building something with for me to list. My teams have always felt like family to me, and I’m going to miss them terribly.

Beyond the people, I would be remiss if I didn’t emphasize two aspects of our culture that are especially good: our scrappiness, and how we think about individual contributor roles.

Be Scrappy. I’ve always understood “move fast” to really mean “be scrappy,” and what a pleasure it’s been to watch how +28,000 employees haven’t substantially changed that. I don’t think “move fast” applies to product direction, design standards, or engineering quality. It’s about process. As the company continues to grow, you will increasingly find that most people in any given room are new and don’t necessarily know that it’s okay to say “sorry, I don’t understand any of what you just said” or that they’re supposed to ask “Do we really need to wait for the monthly review?” These kinds of questions are our secret weapon against becoming a bureaucracy where innovative people don’t want to work. So keep asking “why?” about everything related to how we work.

Roles and Responsibility. The way we think about team roles is better than anywhere else I’ve seen. We let ICs truly lead, we incentivize transitions to and from management for the right reasons, and we let teams figure out who does what with deference to strengths instead of functional titles. We could still do better (particularly around how senior ICs integrate with director+ level decisions), but this way of thinking is the industry leading and has made Facebook a very special place for me, as something of a hybrid between engineering, product, and design.

What’s Next

My professional purpose has always been to “amplify human capability and raise standards,” and while I’m proud to say I’ve done a little of both at Facebook, I’m excited to focus more intensely on this going forward. I’m starting a company with a good friend of mine, Alex Epstein, at the intersection of applied philosophy (epistemology, specifically) and technology.

I don’t know if leaving Facebook affords me one parting word of advice, but I have one for you anyway: I want to encourage you all to believe in yourselves more. In the value your products create for the world. In your own product sense and instinct when they contradict the data (which we’re often too confident in). In your ability to create something people love. And in your perspective when no one else agrees . . . especially when you’re afraid to share it. The truth does not emerge from averages, but your ability to reason lets you glimpse it — stand by it, defend it, and be proud of it. Everything else will take care of itself.

Subscribe to New Ideal to receive the latest in-depth content from ARI.

So I see this story on several outlets about a teacher attacking a kid, and the video they all seem to use paints a specific picture that the teacher went nuts...which he did. But I am curious, so I start to search...lo and behold, the full unedited video shows the teacher get cursed at, threatened, several N bombs dropped on him and a basketball thrown @ him before he finally explodes. After watching video below, I gotta say...this kid got what he deserved.

Teacher was arrested and was held on 50k bond. It happened in Los Angeles, so I imagine he will have lost his job and I imagine this kid's parents will be looking for a 7 figure payout. Also a gofundme page for the teacher.

https://www.gofundme.com/for-mr-riley
]]>Politics and Religion ForumIU_Knightmarehttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75310http://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75305&goto=newpost
Sun, 04 Nov 2018 23:11:06 GMTOn this day in 1994 former President Ronald Reagan wrote his farewell letter to the country he loved so dearly.
It was carried by every newspaper...On this day in 1994 former President Ronald Reagan wrote his farewell letter to the country he loved so dearly.

It was carried by every newspaper in the nation.

I cried that day reading it and I cried again last night reading it to my friend while listening to Taps if all things.

RIP to a great American.

"Nov. 4, 1994

My Fellow Americans,

I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease.

Upon learning this news, Nancy and I had to decide whether as private citizens we would keep this a private matter or whether we would make this news known in a public way.

In the past Nancy suffered from breast cancer and I had my cancer surgeries. We found through our open disclosures we were able to raise public awareness. We were happy that as a result many more people underwent testing.

They were treated in early stages and able to return to normal, healthy lives.

So now, we feel it is important to share it with you. In opening our hearts, we hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition. Perhaps it will encourage a clearer understanding of the individuals and families who are affected by it.

At the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this earth doing the things I have always done. I will continue to share life's journey with my beloved Nancy and my family. I plan to enjoy the great outdoors and stay in touch with my friends and supporters.

Unfortunately, as Alzheimer's Disease progresses, the family often bears a heavy burden. I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience. When the time comes I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage.

In closing let me thank you, the American people for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your President. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.

I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.

Some sad news. On Thursday, November 1, at the RosslynHoliday Inn at...]]>

Some sad news. On Thursday, November 1, at the RosslynHoliday Inn at noon, we will reveal the first of Special Counsel RobertMueller's sex assault victims. I applaud the courage and dignity andgrace and strength of my client. pic.twitter.com/wZVQeHD45r

He should be fired immediately! The seriousness of the charge demands it! We must sympathize with the accuser, and if you don't you are pro rape! #MeToo.

I need a few more talking points. Maybe some of the lefties can help me out, here. :coffee:
]]>Politics and Religion ForumBaron Samedihttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75286Trump says he will void birthright citizenship through executive orderhttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75283&goto=newpost
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 14:43:44 GMTI'm sure the GOP, being the self-appointed DEFENDARS OF TEH CONSITUTION will rush to save it. :tmack:

President Trump is planning to use an executive order to strip birthright citizenship from America's laws, rather than trying to change the Constitution through an act of Congress. The potential move, which would likely trigger numerous legal challenges, would seek to end the conferring of citizenship to children of non-citizens who are born in the U.S. — which is currently guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," Trump said. He discussed the plan in an interview with Axios on HBO that is slated to air Sunday.

]]>Politics and Religion ForumGrandmaster Bhttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75283Potential precedent setting case to be heard 11/28 by SCOTUShttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75282&goto=newpost
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 17:59:07 GMT...with an Indiana case being front and center. The long and short of it centers around whether the Eight Amendment provides protections against......with an Indiana case being front and center. The long and short of it centers around whether the Eight Amendment provides protections against excessive civil asset forfeitures. Both the ACLU and US Chamber of Commerce have filed friend of the court briefs in support of the plaintiff.

The libertarian Institute for Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. Timbs was at work earlier this year when a text message said that his was among the small percentage of cases the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear.

Attorney Wesley Hottot, who will argue for Timbs before the U.S. Supreme Court, said abuses of forfeiture in Indiana are unique nationally.

"This is the only state in the nation where prosecutions for civil forfeiture can be outsourced to private law firms who then work on contingency based on how much property they forfeit," Hottot said. "Tyson's case, this very case, was brought by a private law firm working on contingency. We have to ask ourselves if these types of cases would even be brought if the prosecutor wasn't financially self-interested."

Liberals and conservatives dislike civil asset forfeiture, which will make it hard for the state to win the upcoming case. Liberals don't like "policing for profit." Conservatives don't like government exercising power to take private property. The liberal American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative United States Chamber of Commerce filed friend of the court briefs supporting Timbs.

"The only people who really like civil forfeiture is cops," said Samuel, the IU professor, "because they can seize stuff and use money to fund the department."

Seems like a nonpartisan effort that may actually provide both justice and relief.
]]>Politics and Religion ForumIU_Knightmarehttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75282Pittsburghhttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75279&goto=newpost
Sat, 27 Oct 2018 22:05:53 GMT2.5 miles from my house.
A violent anti-Semitism kills 11 Jews, apparently because he feels that Trump's Nationalist stance is belied by an 'infestation of Jews'

Trump just proclaimed himself a Nationalist, and enjoyed the chants of Lock Him Up! directed at 'globalist' Soros just days after a Trump worshipper shipped Soros a bomb.

Anti-Semitic violence is way up.

Meanwhile, fucking POSTUS is not trying to calm his most dangerous followers down. He is going to rallies, including tonight, where things will be turned up even hotter.

Those who shrug at this- congratulations.
:coffee:

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
]]>Politics and Religion Forumbenhameanhttp://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75279Hate crime?http://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=75276&goto=newpost
Sat, 27 Oct 2018 12:55:22 GMTHate crime?
Could you imagine if this was on Muslim poster? And people wonder why conservatives are angry.
This basically enforces my...Hate crime?

Could you imagine if this was on Muslim poster? And people wonder why conservatives are angry.

This basically enforces my feelings for the past two years. Keep in mind I’m not a Christian conservative, however the double standard has been going on far too long. In meantime the people who died in 9/11 towers must be smiling ear to ear. Not.... Well maybe the Muslims are. After All they deserve the most tolerance.

I do have one question though why did they use Hillary Clinton holding a Bible for the pick?